The future of higher education: How to move forward

ABSTRACT

This article reflects on possible and necessary transformations, based on the experiences lived by teachers, students, and educational institutions throughout the year 2020, as they survived, learned and adapted to the COVID-19 pandemic. Teaching should be based on pedagogical evidence, collaborative practices, educational technology, supported by computer infrastructure and evaluative practices that foster learning, through feedback and a closer interaction between learner and teacher. The direction pointed in the future includes and is based on blended education to help students to achieve competence for professional practice. The development of interpersonal skills will be fundamental, especially in the training of health professionals. Offering opportunities for faculty development and creating communities of practice for collaborative learning will also be essential. The greater flexibility of curricula and the technological mediation of the teaching and learning process should favor exchanges and the internationalization of institutions. In this way, both undergraduate, graduate and stricto-sensu education tends to expand its scope and will no longer be limited to its original niches, expanding to national and international agreements. University spaces and face-to-face moments will be adapted to a new reality, which allows the student to acquire essential clinical and relational skills, and which require activities in the professional practice settings. In the HPE, ensuring these training moments will continue to be a fundamental requirement. Thus, classrooms, laboratories and internship fields must be safe, allowing direct guidance and supervision by teachers and preceptors. It is possible and probable that, for a long time, it will still be necessary to maintain some social distance, use of personal protective equipment, hand and environment hygiene so that students are not deprived of these experiences during their training. In the health area, it will be necessary to reaffirm that there is no dilemma between the training of health professionals and patient safety, as we experienced with the interruption of most practical activities in the HPE undergraduate courses in Brazil, during the first semester of 2020. Training health professionals, in a context of a health & sanitary emergency, is equivalent to caring for people in any context or setting. It is the same if we are talking about access to personal protective equipment or access to vaccines. The challenges are launched and the possibilities for advancement emerge and need to be taken advantage of from a cohesive work between university managers, faculty, administrative staff and students.